Black Stump ‘07 saw eight ordinary people like you and me ’slum it up’ in Slum Survivor, a simulation exercise run by TEAR that offers a glimpse of how one sixth (one billion) of our global neighbours do life everyday (in slums), and how Jesus calls us to respond to them as our global neighbours. I can say that these people were ‘ordinary just like you and me’, because I was one of them!

On the surface, my slum experience was not much different to a camping trip – eating and cooking simple meals on a portable stove, sleeping outdoors at the mercy of the elements, and doing washing from a bucket – pretty fun at times! Yet looking deeper, we had the opportunity to build and live in our own slum village (using wooden pallets, cardboard and tarpaulin); make and sell paper bags so that we could afford to cook and eat two meals of rice and dhal each day and nothing else; do challenges that reflected real life situations in slum communities ( e.g. constructing a stretch of road that was destroyed by ‘floods’ by hammering rocks into rubble; having to choose between ’safe’ and ‘poisonous’ lollies when you are illiterate) – and all the while being cheated and oppressed by our ’slum lords’!

While some real clinchers of an actual slum such as the sickness, the smells and the true desperation to survive each day were missing (not to mention the uncertainty of when this way of life would come to an end), we still had a small taste of slum life: what it felt like to go to bed hungry, to expend the little energy you have in the hope of gaining something only to be met with loss, disappointment and fatigue; and ultimately, the vulnerable, voiceless position that not being educated about your rights puts you in. 

We even heard eye-witness stories about real slums, where I learnt that despite the despair, slums are also places of much vibrancy, creativity, hospitality and hope. Peoples’ determination to survive despite the circumstances as well as the sincerity expressed by families to share what little they had challenged me about really trusting and delighting in the Lord to deliver when it seemed like there was ’so little to live for’ – but how wrong is that! Slum Survivor reminded me that our lives do not consist in the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15) but rather, the riches found in a genuine relationship with God. It definitely helped me to identify more with the world’s poor than I did before. Finally, it reinforced in me the life-giving joys that come out of living a simpler lifestyle, which prioritises relationships and social change over greed by responding to the powerless of our world with justice, humility and compassion just as Jesus did. 

Weilin - Survivor Blackstump 07

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